Falling Through Time
by do i need a pen name
Summary: Time travel was a tricky business, but River Song loved it. It gave her the chance to meet the parents she had spent so much time apart from. Brief looks at River's rare encounters with her family. COMPLETE
1. The Time of Angels

**Falling Through Time**

_**THE TIME OF ANGELS**_

Time travel was a tricky business, but there was no denying that it was the one thing that River Song understood best of all. And with time travel on her side, it was only a matter of time before River finally found the people she loved most in the universe. Time travel gave her the chance to meet the parents she always seemed to be separated from.

River Song was always one to make an entrance, and her flight from the Byzantium to the Tardis was no different, especially considering who River knew for certain would be on board: Amy. It would be the first time that Amy would meet River, her daughter…not that Amy would know this for quite some time yet. So yes, River was bound to make an entrance, show off quite a bit. It was what she was best at, after all.

It was so hard to wait to be introduced. Amy so obviously didn't know River yet, and River so desperately wanted to tell her mum everything.

And River couldn't help but be nothing less than delighted about just how much her mum seemed to approve of her. Amy had taken a liking to River, there was no doubt about it, but it was still much too soon for motherhood to be thrust upon the fiery redhead. River's joy at being in the presence of her mother could not be contained, though, even if she was the only one who was aware of the situation. And naturally she fueled all of this excess joy into flirting with the Doctor. River really did love to see him squirm…

And of course Amy guessed it right away. She had guessed from the very beginning that River was the Doctor's wife, and she had seemed to approve. It was stretching it a bit, but years later River couldn't help but remember that approval when she and the Doctor really had gotten married.

But even with all of this, there had been a brief scare. River had been sure that Amy would be the first victim of the Weeping Angels on Alfava Metraxis. Reflecting on it later, however, River couldn't help but laugh at herself for worrying. She should have known all along that Amy would survive. After all, River hadn't been born yet. Oh the joy of paradoxes…

**A/N-Because I feel like things might get a bit confusing, as tends to happen when time travel is involved, I just wanted to clarify something about this story. Although they are all technically the same person, I view Melody, Mels, and River as three separate characters, we'll call it. And honestly, because of the nature of regeneration, that's basically what they are; they are all a singular person, but their different experiences as literally three different people gives each of them something unique, if that makes any sense. So, for example, in this chapter I said that this meeting was the first time that Amy would meet River, because it _is_. Yes, Amy knows Mels, but Mels and River are two incredibly different people, although still techinically the same person. **

**I'm not sure that this clears anything up-if anything, I've just complicated things even more. But I wanted to explain the distinction I see between Melody, Mels, and River because it isn't entirely apparent until later chapters. Anyway, enjoy!**


	2. Flesh and Stone

_**FLESH AND STONE**_

Even knowing that Amy's death would mean the erasure of River's entire existence, River couldn't help but worry. The Doctor did always say that time could be rewritten. And Amy was dying.

Amy was dying and River truly had no idea how to save her. River was quite positive she had never, in her entire life, been more thankful to have the Doctor there. Because he was the one to save her mum. River had been in a panic and didn't know what to do, but the Doctor had figured it out and mum was safe for a little while longer.

Only a little while, though, because of course the brilliant thing to do when being hunted by Weeping Angels was to leave behind the one person whose life they had attempted to take more than once that day already.

And by the time the Doctor figured out the flaw in that plan, it was too late. Amy was going to be erased from time. This was so much worse than dying. And the Doctor thought he could work out how to save her, but it wasn't realistic. River knew Amy couldn't blindly make it through a forest full of Weeping Angels.

"It's never going to work."

Naturally the Doctor had gotten angry with her for voicing her fears, but River couldn't help it; it just slipped out. She had already been faced with her mother's possible death twice that day. And now it was quite probable that Amy was going to be erased from time completely. Despite what anyone who thought they knew River Song might think, this was not about self-preservation.

This was about her mum. Her mum who still had so much life left to live. Her mum who hadn't yet had the chance to marry her dad.

But then, when all hope had seemed lost, River finally got the teleport to work. And, with a flash of flight she had her arms wrapped around Amy, hugging her mum as she hadn't done in ages.

"See?" She couldn't help but gloat. "Told you I could get it working."

Anything for mum.

Things had turned alright after that. The Angels were the ones to be erased from history, and the Doctor, Amy, and River had all survived.

There had been one downside to this meeting, however. River was a prisoner. A prisoner serving a sentence for murder. Even if Amy didn't know the real extent of their relationship, River did not enjoy having her find out this detail of her life. She did receive some consolation from the fact that Amy didn't seem to care at all, though.

But one day, when Amy found out the truth, maybe she would care that her daughter was imprisoned for murder…

**A/N—Seeing as River is a main character in this story, I just thought I'd share that I recently posted a River/11 one-shot that I think you might enjoy. Please go read it!**


	3. The Pandorica Opens

_**THE PANDORICA OPENS**_

River would never forgive herself for not recognizing her father immediately; thinking about the time she spent with him not knowing who he was would only make her regret all of the time they had never had together to begin with.

And she didn't even want to begin to tackle the concept of how she could have still existed when her father apparently never had.

But even with all of that and considering the circumstances, she _had_ been happy to see Amy again. Mum was older now, still not quite ready for River, but much closer than before. And really, adventures with mum and the Doctor always meant a good time. Even if the Tardis had basically kidnapped her and brought her to Amy's house, where she saw firsthand the proof that she and her mum both had the same first love.

Although she couldn't quite figure out _how_ it had happened—after all, _she_ was the one who actually piloted the Tardis correctly—just being in her mother's childhood home was exhilarating. Of course she'd heard countless stories and…well, admittedly, she _had_ been there before. But any glimpse of her mother's life, repeated or not, was worth seeing.

Oh…but if only she hadn't been pressed for time, she could have explored just once more. And then of course she saw the books, and River just knew that things hadn't quite been adding up correctly at Stonehenge.

There was something seriously wrong, and it clearly had something to do with her mother. But River Song was determined and she would do her very best to make sure that nothing—not a single thing—could happen that would take her mother away from her again.


	4. The Big Bang

_**THE BIG BANG**_

She went to her parents' wedding and it made her so inexplicably sad. They were her parents and she was able to see them get married first hand but they had no clue who she was. At this rate, they would never know. But what if…

A small wedding gift was just was they needed; nothing big, just something River happened to have on her person. She handed it to her father—mum was off greeting guests and he was alone for the briefest moment. River couldn't miss the grin that spread across her dad's face when he looked at her mum. And although she had seen the same look on her mum's face, there was still something just the tiniest bit off with Amy, so naturally a wedding gift to cheer her up was in order before River left. Something to complete her happiness.

"Rory?" The name felt foreign on her tongue, even though she had used it so many times before. And, though she would probably never admit it to anyone else, she did get the smallest twinge of satisfaction when she saw him jump at the sound of her voice; best to always keep dad on his toes, now that he was married to mum.

"Yes?" Came the polite reply and River could tell that Rory had no idea who she was.

"I'm afraid I have to go; places to be, things to do, I'm sure you understand," River told him, offering him the empty journal. "Do you think you could give this to Amy? I'd do it myself, but she looks a bit occupied."

"It's a book," Rory said, looking just a tad surprised as he accepted the object River offered him.

"It's a wedding gift," River corrected her dad, "Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue. Amy will understand."

Rory still looked slightly unsure, but River just smiled, turned on her heel, and left.

As she walked outside a few minutes later, past the row of windows, River couldn't help but take one last look…just in case. It was purely by chance that Amy happened to glance that way just when River walked by. And when Amy saw River, she stood up and River knew. Amy recognized River; she might not know who, exactly, she was yet, but she _did_ recognize River. Giving Amy the journal had been the right choice.

Once Amy saw it she would remember. The Doctor would return and then everything would be right with the universe.

For a short time, at least…


	5. The Impossible Astronaut

_**THE IMPOSSIBLE ASTRONAUT**_

The next time they met her, she couldn't contain her glee at seeing her parents again. And, naturally, she had to make a grand entrance, so she shot off the Doctor's ridiculous hat (though it really isn't as ridiculous as the last one). Altogether, it was a very successful day. Or, at least it had started that way. Things never did go quite as planned when the Doctor was involved.

Case in point: Naturally River and the Doctor started things off by comparing diaries. Rory didn't understand what they were doing, but Amy did. Mum was always more on top of things than dad.

They had gone on a picnic after that. River and the Doctor on a picnic with her parents. It was the most normal thing she had ever done with her family. Normal was nice. But normal never lasted, not for River Song.

And then the Doctor had gotten shot; he had died. River was upset, unbelievably so. She was incredibly overcome with grief. But so was Amy. And so she had done exactly what she knew she needed to do. River comforted her mother. River Song comforted her mother as the first love of both of their lives died.

It was an interesting situation later, in the Tardis. They had the Doctor back again…sort of. None of them knew what was really going on, least of all River. But Amy and Rory had looked to her for guidance. Mum and dad had looked to her for answers; answers that she couldn't give them. It wasn't supposed to be like that. She was the one who was supposed to look to them for advice. Her life really was all back-to-front.

Later on in the warehouse, she was investigating tunnels. Something which, as an archeologist, she was perfectly qualified to do all on her own. But the Doctor had told Rory to go with, to watch after her. River Song didn't need looking after, but it was nice. She had her dad there with her and he would look after her, she knew he would. And he did. Rory was always the cautious one; River certainly hadn't inherited much of that. But then they had started talking. Talking about River and the Doctor, a topic that River was normally more than willing to discuss. But it was the conversation she never liked: the day the Doctor would meet her for the first time.

Of course, then the door had finally unlocked and they had discovered just how expansive the tunnel system was. A three-month trek across the globe in search of the illusive Silence would follow shortly after, but River would never forget those brief moments when it was just her and her dad. Just Rory and River.


	6. The Day of the Moon

_**THE DAY OF THE MOON**_

River came to Florida twice, though the exact details of her first stay there were sketchy at best. Her childhood—what little of it there had been—was so very far away now.

She remembered being scared though. Back then she had simply been Melody, just a child. Melody didn't like the Silence; she wanted to get away from them. And she had tried, she had tried _so_ hard. Melody wanted nothing more than to get away from the entire Movement. She didn't _want_ to live in a spacesuit. She just wanted to be a little girl. And in her haste to get away, she failed to recognize her mother.

Melody knew Amy's face. She had a single picture of the two of them, taken not long after Melody had been born. Melody cherished that picture: the one connection she had to her family. But her freedom was more important. It wasn't until much later, when she was homeless and dying on the streets of New York, that Melody realized that the woman who had shot her had, in fact, been the woman in the picture.

Her mother had shot her. Melody simply couldn't understand it.

For all that she disliked being ordered around by the Silence Movement, no one had ever tried to hurt her there. No one had ever tried to kill her there, as her mother must surely have been trying to do.

Maybe…maybe it would be for the best if she tried to find the Silence Movement again. Clearly Melody wasn't going to be safe with her family, and living on the street was slowly killing her. Harm had yet to befall her within the Movement. Maybe she would be safe there…

Her second trip to Florida nearly caused her heart to break. Because of course River recognized everything. The details may not have been crystal clear after all this time, but she would never be able to forget her childhood. And it just broke her heart that Amy and Rory had no idea that they would one day be parents and that Melody was so close by now. If only she could just warn them about the little girl they would love with all of their hearts but would lose too soon.

Everything would change.

River could grow up with her parents. She could truly be Melody Williams (or, more likely, Melody Pond), daughter of Amy and Rory. Her life would be wonderful, of that River truly had no doubt.

But she couldn't do it. Time couldn't be rewritten, not like that. River wouldn't allow it. For as much anguish as she felt about not being raised by her parents, the life she had led had made her into River Song.

And so she wouldn't say a word. She would continue to keep her mouth shut and keep her memories to herself. That was the life of a time traveler.

But even if they were still unaware of her true identity, that didn't mean she couldn't relish the time she did get to spend with her parents. Time with Amy and Rory was always time well-spent.


	7. A Good Man Goes to War

_**A GOOD MAN GOES TO WAR**_

River Song would give absolutely _anything_ to be able to remember the first month of her life. Back then she had simply been Melody Pond. It was the one time in her life that she had actually lived with either of her parents for any period of measureable, uninterrupted time.

She had met her mother first, as was only natural. They had had just one short month together before she finally met her father as well. Her mother told her to be brave. Her father promised to love her forever.

It was too good to last.

River knew what would happen when the Doctor finally showed up at Demon's Run. She had _always_ known what would happen. She knew because she had lived it firsthand.

After Melody was taken, River finally appeared. She had to be there. Twice, actually. The first time because it was where she had always been: where she had been born, where she had known her parents, where she had been taken from them. The second time because it hurt her to not know her parents just as much as it hurt them to lose her, and they needed to understand that.

It had taken some convincing, and rightly so.

Naturally the Doctor had been the first to figure it out, as she had known he would be. It was harder to convince her parents. They knew River and they knew Melody. The woman who knew even more about the Doctor than he did was _not_ their little baby.

They let River take them home, though, since the Doctor had gone. And they listened to her story. And she gave them hope.

Hope, because she told them she had always known them. She had grown up with her parents, after all.

What she didn't tell them was that it hadn't been the only time she had grown up. Or that they had been growing up right alongside her.

They would find out the whole truth soon enough, though. And River couldn't help but hope that when they did they would finally be able to come to some semblance of peace.


	8. Let's Kill Hitler

_**LET'S KILL HITLER**_

Mels hadn't always known that Amy and Rory were her parents.

Once she had regenerated and taken the form of a young child again, she had been placed in Leadworth by the Silence. Naturally she had known that it was because the Doctor had a connection to the small English village; she had been preparing for the moment when she finally met him for practically her entire life, after all. And she also knew that the reason he had a connection to Leadworth at all was because of her parents.

But Mels had never known what her parents' names were.

She didn't even know what her own surname was—something she would have gotten from them and that she could recognize one of them by; everyone had only ever referred to her as 'Melody' until, during a brief period of rebelliousness, she had refused to answer to nothing but the much-abbreviated 'Mels.' All she really had of her parents was the single picture of herself as an infant with her mother, but that was hardly enough to go on; who really knew what her parents looked like in the time period she had been sent to?

Mels had to admit that it was quite possibly the one thing the Silence Movement had failed to prepare her for. A strange phenomena in and of itself, due to how very devoted they were to making sure that Silence never did fall. But then again, why would they ever want her to feel as if she belonged to someone other than them?

It had become fairly obvious that Amelia Pond was her mother quite quickly, though. Little red-haired Amy, with the blatantly Scottish accent in the English village, who showed up to school one day and couldn't stop going on about the mad-man with the blue box that had crashed in her back garden the night before. It was quite easy to befriend Amy, mostly because everyone thought her to be a bit odd after that.

And so Mels bided her time, waiting for the Doctor's return and attempting to figure out her father's identity in the meantime.

For a brief time she thought it was probably Jeff, but in the end she had decided that Rory was the only real candidate. Because honestly, who else had proved time and time again that he could keep up with Amy and would always be there for her?

Rory and Amy hadn't been dating for very long when the Doctor finally returned to Leadworth. But, in true Mels fashion, she had been _otherwise detained_ until after he had left again. Just for the record, though, it wasn't as if she hadn't _tried_ to get to him. It just so happened that commandeering a police car in order to assist her friend—after a frantic phone call about a strange man in the other girl's house—was frowned upon in Earth society.

Oh, alright, and maybe by the time her parents got married 2 years later she hadn't sorted out her behavior…tendencies, leading to Mels missing the wedding and the third appearance of the Doctor in Leadworth. In her defense, however, it wasn't as if she actually remembered the Doctor's existence until more than halfway through the day. And it wasn't until much later in her life that she figured out why she had ever forgotten.

Her parents disappeared that night. Naturally, speculation ran rampant, especially after the appearance of Amy's supposedly imaginary friend in the middle of the reception. Mels lay in wait, however, sure that they would one day return, bringing the Doctor with them.

She hadn't counted on what would happen when she finally did meet the Doctor.

Regeneration was never a pleasant experience, even if it did heal her dying body.

But being confused with a woman she had never heard of was a downright annoying experience.

They kept calling her River but, honestly, what did it really matter in the end? The Doctor had tried to thwart all of her attempts on his life, but Mels managed to fulfill her purpose all the same. It was never going to be a violent death for the Doctor. Prolonged, perhaps, but never violent.

Prolonging his death changed everything.

The Silence had taken a baby and turned her into a weapon. But prolonging the murder Melody had been trained to carry out brought her back to her parents.

Prolonging the Doctor's death allowed Melody Pond to become River Song. And, although they were still most often apart, River Song knew so much more of her parents than Melody ever had.

**a/n—I feel as if my mindset while writing this chapter needs some explaining. **

**I believe it really is entirely plausible that Mels had no idea Amy and Rory were her parents. Naturally, it would be crazy to suggest that the Silence wouldn't have done everything possible to prepare Melody to kill the Doctor, but why would they need to reveal the identity of Melody's parents to her? If they thought that her having parents was important and would help them reach their goal then they never would have taken her away from Amy in the first place. Also, because she had run away from the Silence—which they clearly hadn't anticipated as being possible—they also probably hadn't been expecting her to regenerate into a younger version of herself (Mels herself stated that the last time she regenerated, she became a toddler). The way I see it, they sent Melody to Leadworth because they knew the Doctor had a connection to the village through her parents; it just so happened that her parents were there at the same time as well and the same age as her. I could accept the idea that they chose to place Mels there when she was the same age as her parents, but I still don't think she was ever told their identities.**

**Towards the end of the flashbacks concerning Mels in **_**Lets Kill Hitler**_**, she has a line of dialogue directed at Amy and Rory which implies that she really wasn't ever told who her parents are: "Oh come on. Seriously, it's got to be you two." By this point in time, it would seem logical that Mels was really only sticking by Amy in the hope that the Doctor would return to the other girl, as he had promised. The need to kill the Doctor aside, it would be important to Mels that Rory and Amy actually got together because it would ensure that she would eventually be born.**


	9. The Wedding of River Song

_**THE WEDDING OF RIVER SONG**_

The Doctor was always saying that time could be rewritten, and River always loved to take everything he said to heart.

History said that the Doctor died at Lake Silencio on the twenty-second of April, 2011.

History said that River Song was his murderer.

River Song wasn't very fond of that version of history. So she decided to rewrite it.

It was hard work, no doubt about that. The hardest part was when the Doctor tried to show her an older version of herself—yet another time River showed up in the same place twice. But then she saw her parents standing there, too. For as much as the Doctor had easily come to mean to her since becoming River Song, he had always meant just as much to her mum. And so she decided to embrace the plan she had come up with while trapped beneath the surface of Lake Silencio.

River Song would rewrite history. The Doctor would _not_ be dying that day.

Of course, then all of Earth's history started happening all at once, which River hadn't anticipated. But if all of history happened all at once, then she would have all of time to spend with her parents.

What time she did spend with them was interesting, to say the very least. Amy might have an office on a train and scattered memories of another reality, but River remembered everything. Therefore, River was her mother's boss. And dad's too, even if mum almost didn't realize who he was. It was actually rather amusing to River that Amy didn't recognize Rory until almost the very end.

But Amy would _always_ find Rory; she would always love him. She would love him just as much as she would always love River. Even if she secretly did wish that River Song did not exist. Because if there was one thing Amy wanted more than anything else, it was her baby back. And so she killed Madame Kovarian for taking Melody from her.

But time was still going wrong and the Silence were escaping. Time was collapsing all around them and the only way to fix all of it was to undo River's rewrite of history. Naturally, in the Doctor's mind this meant that a wedding was in order.

For as much as Rory had verbally accepted Amy's brief explanation that they were River's parents, River knew that he honestly had no idea what was going on. But he consented to the marriage. Not that he had really had any idea what he was consenting to until the Doctor requested the same of Amy.

"I need you to say it, too…Mother of the Bride."

Oh, and Amy's face when the Doctor called her that…it was priceless, in River's opinion, no matter the dire circumstances surrounding them. Amy looked as if she didn't know whether to be excited or shocked or incredibly angry that the Doctor was springing such a sudden marriage on _her_ little girl.

But she still gave her consent to the marriage, just as Rory had. And, once River and the Doctor were properly married, time righted itself, progressing on in the correct order. Amy and Rory continued on with their life together, and River continued on with her adventures with Doctor as he got steadily younger. But that didn't mean that the Pond family was separated forever. No, River still popped in from time to time.

The first time it happened after the Doctor's death for Amy was, for River, right after the first time Amy had met her. But that was time travel for you.

Time travel was so helpful though, because it gave River a broader perspective. It showed her how very important it was that she share her most valuable secret right then. River couldn't help but get excited as Amy couldn't contain her glee at the news that the Doctor was still alive. And then Rory had joined them and the excitement began anew—even if a break for another drink was in order as the realization hit Amy that she was technically the Doctor's mother-in-law.

But this was a proper family; they were celebrating the highs and lows of life together.

She hadn't known then that it would be the last time she would see her parents. She hadn't known that the next time she met the Doctor for an adventure it would be her last. She had long-since given up her remaining regenerations, but she hadn't thought they would have so little time together after that. Her only solace in any of it was that she had made her mother happy. Mum had been down and River had made it all better. If that was truly to be the end of their short and often interrupted time together, River was happy to know that at least she had gone out on a high note.


	10. The Angels Take Manhattan

_**THE ANGELS TAKE MANHATTAN**_

River didn't like to keep track of the time she spent with her parents. Yes, she had her diary to tell her where she was in her timeline with the Doctor, but it was different with her parents. The Doctor was a Time Lord who could regenerate; he could live forever compared to Amy and Rory.

Amy and Rory were the parents she had spent so much time apart from, and River refused to know how limited their time together truly was. Encounters with her family were rare, and she was determined to relish those moments when her parents did show up.

But of course, that didn't mean she wasn't sometimes surprised when one of them did happen to randomly appear before her. Like in New York. In 1938.

River had been there out of scientific curiosity. She really couldn't pass up the Weeping Angels in 1938 in Manhattan. And so imagine her surprise when Rory, of all people, appeared out of thin air one night right in front of her. One second she'd been attempting to avoid the men sent by Grayle, and the next there was her dad, standing directly in her path.

But how exciting it was for her to run into him like this. She always loved any chance she got to spend time with one of her parents. Growing up alongside them was one thing, but now that they actually knew who she was they could properly bond with each other.

And of course, since she was River Song, the best way to bond with her dad was to get both of them arrested. Well…not arrested, exactly. But big, threatening-looking men with guns who worked for a crime boss? Yeah, best to call it getting arrested.

Getting arrested together gave them time to talk, and River discovered that Rory _really_ shouldn't be there. Naturally, River was able to be there because of her vortex manipulator, a much simpler form of time travel than the Tardis. But Rory wasn't with the Doctor this time. In fact, Rory had no idea how he'd ended up back in 1938.

But River figured it out easily enough. She'd come here on a mission, after all. River knew that the Weeping Angels had invaded Manhattan. Obviously that was how dad had ended up here as well, with her.

She could hardly take the time to be thankful that she was getting the chance to see him now, though, because she had finally come face-to-face with one of the Angels. And had of course gotten separated from dad yet again, in the meantime.

Trapped in a room with an Angel, there was only one solution that River could see. And that was how mum and the Doctor were finally able to show up. But of course, now that the family was all here, dad had gone missing _again_.

Poor dad. This really wasn't turning out to be his day. The Doctor had no idea how to find him. Or where to find him. Or when. All he knew was that Rory had been displaced by the Angels. That was where River stepped in. Because of course she knew exactly how to find where her dad had been sent against his will.

The search for Rory was when she saw them…mum's new glasses. And then it hit River: time really was passing. Mum and dad really _were_ getting older. What would she do when, one day, they weren't there anymore?

For as much time as they had spent apart, could River really survive knowing she would one day never see her parents again?

She almost found out that night.

She saw them jump. Mum and Dad. They jumped off the building in an attempt to save the world. And River could only stand there in shock and watch them do it. She didn't want their precious little time together cut short like this.

But then they survived. They all survived the Angels taking Manhattan, thanks to mum and dad. Just this once, everybody lived and the world was set right again.

Until time caught up with them.

Because no one could live forever, travelling with the Doctor. That just wasn't the way things worked.

It was a lone Angel that did it. One last Weeping Angel, who had survived the paradox of dad dying twice in one night.

Suddenly dad was gone and mum wanted nothing more than to follow him, back through time. And of course the Doctor wouldn't allow it. He wouldn't let Amy go. There was just no way of knowing for sure that Amy would end up with Rory if she let the Weeping Angel take her, too.

But River knew that all Amy and Rory truly had was each other. They had once had her, but their baby had been ripped from them. She got to see her parents every so often, but they had never been a proper family together. And they never would be. Amy and Rory only had each other. They needed each other.

So River told the Doctor to shut up and Amy to go, to blink. Because she knew it just wasn't the same: only Rory and only Amy. Each alone. They were Amy and Rory, Rory and Amy, never one without the other. They were meant to be _together_.

She knew she was effectively sending her parents to their deaths, but she had always known they wouldn't live forever. For as much as she knew that a horrible day was coming for her, she also knew that the chances of her parents actually outliving her were very slim.

And so they were both gone now. Amy and Rory. Mum and Dad. They were gone from the Doctor's life forever.

In the end, though, it really didn't matter that she'd lost her parents that day. Because there was always hope that she'd seem them again. The Doctor could never return to New York, but River's vortex manipulator could do things the Tardis could not. And she had a manuscript to drop off.

She would do her best to see her parents when she gave mum the book to publish. But she knew she wouldn't visit again after that. It would hurt too much to see her parents living their lives in the past and knowing that she could never take them away, back to the lives they'd once had.

And maybe…if she was lucky, she'd see the Doctor again and her parents would be with him. After all, as she got older, he kept getting younger. That was the order of things.

And his youth was when he travelled with her parents.

Time travel was a tricky business, but River Song loved it. It would give her the chance to see the parents that she had spent so much time apart from.


End file.
